Smitty

iTrader: (1)

Tom,

I recommend and use Castrol Racing straight 40 weight. They have a heavy duty oil, but it is not the same as Racing. You might need to special order it. I agree with the non synthetic thought. Boats run at fairly constant temps, unlike car engines.

I change it every 25 hours.

Dave

Vinny P

I am planning on adding a Whipple soon as well. From the research I have done and feedback I have seen, the link below seems to be the gasket of choice for blower motors..

http://www.cometic.com/

hotlavey

Dave,

Again, thanks for the info. Do you run your boat fairly hard? What is the max rpm for your setup? Which engine and drive do you have? I'm just trying to get a comparison between us. I'm running a 2750 Lavey with a tuned 26" Bravo 1. Max RPM's are 53-5400. GPS'd at 81. What can I expect after the install? Should I go to a 28 or 30 prop? I have a prop shop here that is very good and I really don't want to spend the bucks on a Lab. Maybe testing is the best route for the prop.

hotlavey

Checkmate,

Thanks for the web site, I'll check it out.
Keep me posted on your progress and pass on any good info and I''ll do the same.

Good Luck, Tom

Smitty

iTrader: (1)

I have an older boat with a carbed 454 Mag. It went 60 when it was stock and after the Whipple and fine tuning it goes 74 all day long. I do run it up but I never beat on it. I ALWAYS make sure the oil temp is warmed up before I get on it. I pull 5100 rpm's max.

You'll probably need at least a 31 prop to start out. You'll be looking at speeds in the low to mid 90's with a nice cruise right around 62-65.

I also highly recommend a drive shower for your drive. I run one from Innovative marine and I feel it is responsible for keeping my drive alive.

Dave

28Eliminator

hotlavey, I helped put a new style whipple on a friends boat with a 496 last year and Dustin dialed in the computer the first try. The boat is a 25ft Eliminator Eagle with a 496 and MEIF3 ecu and he went from 67mph to 84mph. We did not change his head gaskets and so far so good. I do expect to change the gaskets this year.
I am in the process of helping another friend install a procharger on a 28ft nordic and we pulled the heads, and the gaskets suck. They were leaking between the cylinders and deformed. You are probably ok on the valve springs, but these gaskets stink for supercharged applications. A valve job will only cost maybe $100 if there is nothing wrong, small price to pay if you are spending $6000 on a whipple. If you want to install without changing them, just be prepaired to change them in the next year or 2, because, it is not IF you will have to change them, but a matter of when. And it is always at the worst time.
I put the felpro marine head gaskets (FelPro 1047
) on mine when I changed mine last year, because I didn't change mine when I installed the whipple, just like Bigwavz. I have had great success with the Felpro gaskets when drag racing cars with a lot of compression, but I think the cometic gaskets are the hot ticket.
Your Bravo XZ should do a good job for you as long as you take it easy out of the hole, and you get a drive shower. And if you do a search on this forum you will find that the simrek drive shower is the prefered drive shower. www.driveshowers.com
Hope this all helps!

aTX427

I have used felpro marine and mercury - good sucess with both. Like many of us are telling you - you are going to spend the money one way or another, it is much less expensive to do it now while everything is apart opposed to the middle of the summer when your down for a month next daying parts in to get back on the water.

hotlavey

Rockie, the info all the folks are giving me here is absolutely amazing. I hope they, and you, know how much it is appreciated. What a great bunch of guys.
As for the drive shower, I use the Hydro Cool as it was highly recommended to me by some off-shore folks. Drive angle does not affect the water flow which is what Simrek also advertises. Hope that is correct.
I am going to spend the bucks to do it right as I will have too much invested in this thing to mickey mouse it.
I am in contact with Dustin and there are a few differing opinions but I will work those out.
Thanks again,

Tom

hotlavey

John,

As I mentioned to Rockie, I am going to do it right, and thanks to all you guys, I'm getting all the info in order to do that. Thanks- I'm getting poorer by the minute.

Tom

HP350SC

How much boost and timing were you running? I am just finishing up a 3300 on my HP500 carb. and was planning on a year or two before cyl. head and gasket change. After reading this thread I'm not so sure....I talked to Dustin and he said ANY detonation will lift the heads. I'm planning on 30 deg. total and 92 octane. I'm pissed now that it's together and heard nothing about HAVING to do the head gaskets? Think I can get a season out of stock gaskets?